Science – Page 4 – Mutual Responsibility

November 5, 2012November 4, 2012

Hurricane Sandy’s Wake Up Call: What Will It Take To Bring People Into Balance With Nature?

Instinctive Human Nature Tries To Exploit Even The Most Horrendous Catastrophes For Self Gain

The article “The politics of Hurricane Sandy” on the pages of The Economist, analyzes the election campaign consequences of the devastating Hurricane sweeping the US East Coast:

Is Hurricane Sandy capable of altering the election result? The presidential candidates are hunkering down and trying to avoid looking partisan as this big, wet storm heads for the eastern seaboard. But any number of calculations are being made by the campaigns. Plausible arguments are flying, explaining why this storm is bad news, or is it good news, for both sides.”

The instinctive behavior of politicians immediately thinking how they can benefit or lose as a result of a natural catastrophe is a very typical human reaction, since people’s subjective perception assesses things from the “What is in it for me?” vantage point.

In truth this behavior is completely the opposite to how we should be looking at the current events. Many people would say that humans have nothing to do with these storms, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions or earthquakes. Every time there is a debate about global warming, or other man-made affects on the environment, many people, including leaders and scientists try everything they can do to prove that humanity, human behavior has nothing to do with these “cyclical natural” changes.

Instead Of The Subjective Examination & The Denial Of Human Involvement In Natural, Environmental Changes, People Need To Examine The “Human Effect” In The Earth’s Living Ecosystem

A step by step examination, looking at the world in terms of the dynamics of living ecosystems, might suggest a different picture, where perhaps even such changes as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have relation to how human beings behave.

It is widely accepted that the whole Earth (possibly the whole Universe) is a single, interconnected, living ecosystem.
This ecosystem as any other living system thrives for overall harmony and homeostasis as this is the foundation of life, and the whole evolutionary process is progressing towards more and more evolved and stable lifeforms.
There is no question that human beings are also part of this ecosystem. The biological human body, even the human psyche, is based on the same laws of general balance and homeostasis, and when this balance is broken people become sick, even die.
Despite all this, humanity as a species is totally out of balance with the rest of nature, while any other living creature lives in balance with its environment, only consuming and taking what is necessary for its existence. Humans take much more than is necessary, and especially in the last century humanity created a completely artificial bubble with the constant quantitative growth economy, with its overproduction and overconsumption of unnecessary and mostly harmful products. In the process, as proven by the deepening global crisis, a global humanity exhausted both the natural and the human resources driving into a dead end.
Humanity at present behaves as a cancer in the vast surrounding natural system.
The natural, living ecosystem around is not “mindless,” its laws are fine tuned towards preserving life, the general harmony and homeostasis as the foundation of life.
Concluding from all the above, it is not far fetched to conclude that the vast surrounding natural system that is infinitely larger then the human species would react against humans as a healthy body would react against a disease or a foreign body, i.e. in a way that tries to reject it.

If humanity wants to “pacify” nature, moreover wants to survive as a species within the evolutionary process there is no other choice but to reveal and follow the basic principles of the natural system, principles people all know very well from their own body’s biology and physiology.

Humanity Needs To Accept & Understand That As Any Other Living Species, It Is Part Of A Vast “Self Adjusting” Natural System, Infinitely Greater Than The Human Species

Humanity has to give up the misunderstanding that people are above nature and can control it, or that natural laws do not apply to humans, or that evolution has stopped by the emergence of a modern humanity. Hurricane Sandy as well as the many other natural disasters where people can neither properly predict or defend themselves, are timely reminders of this fact.

A Predictable And Sustainable Future Is Possible If Humanity Settles Into The Interconnected Natural System As Its Partner, Adapting To Its Laws & Principles

The superiority of human beings above other animals comes from the fact that humans are capable of changing themselves. To be more precise, to change their inherent self centered nature in order to achieve balance in human society and between humanity and the environment. Animals, on the other hand, are instinctively balanced with nature. This conscious change and adaption, if it were to happen, would give people total control over the whole system, to the extent that they remain benevolent partners with it.

Image: “Hurricane Bud” by NASA Earth Observatory from Flickr

November 4, 2012November 11, 2012

In Response To Natural Catastrophes: Self Examination & Decision Time

A natural catastrophe always raises the uncomfortable question about human involvement.

Some will say that such horrible events have nothing to do with human behavior, while others will link them to climate change and our effect on the planet.

In a recent Project Syndicate article titled “Hurricane Sandy and Climate Change,” Professors J. Marshall Shepherd (Director of the Atmospheric Sciences program) and John Knox (receiver of the National Weather Association’s highest research award) of Georgia University, write the following:

There is growing evidence of links between climate change and sea-level rise, heat waves, droughts, and rainfall intensity, and, although scientific research on hurricanes and tornadoes is not as conclusive, that may be changing.

Indeed, recent reports by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other scientific literature suggest that the intensity of hurricanes will increase as a result of warmer waters. And our atmosphere and oceans are, indeed, warming…”

Thinking we might be contributors to the devastation brought upon us by Sandy is indeed startling, and as the professors say, “the scientific research needed to prove or disprove such a connection must still be conducted.”

But while scientists are hesitant to give us a definite answer, Sandy serves as a grim reminder that regardless of how well we understand it, we are all little pieces within the bigger puzzle of nature. And we all depend on nature.

In modern times, we have grown accustomed to seeing ourselves as a separate and superior part of nature. We feel we are entitled to use, consume and manipulate natural systems to satisfy our needs and serve our desires.

Those natural systems, on the other hand, operate in harmony, where all the elements follow the law of homeostasis through interdependence and interconnection.

Our human society, while being a part of nature, is following opposite rules. “Every man for himself,” “it’s none of my business,” “whatever,” “who cares” and “me, me, me” have become standard, acceptable ways of thinking in modern society. So our contrast to nature starts at the most fundamental level. “Nature’s ideology,” if you will, is opposite to ours. But it doesn’t end there.

Human Society Vs. Nature: 5 Things To Consider

1 Many scientists today accept the Earth is a single, interconnected, living ecosystem.

2 This ecosystem, as any other living system, thrives on harmony and homeostasis which is the foundation of life. Evolution is also characterized by creating greater and more intricate ties that can maintain balance.

3 There is no question that human beings are a vital part of this ecosystem, with even our biological bodies being governed by the same laws of balance and homeostasis. When this balance is broken, we get sick or even die.

4 Despite the above knowledge, we, as a species, are in discord with the rest of nature. While other creatures and organisms are in balance with their environment, consuming and taking only what is necessary for their existence, we take a lot more than we need.

5 Within the last century in particular, we have created the artificial bubble of “the growth economy,” which creates an ever increasing overproduction and overconsumption of unnecessary and mostly harmful products. By doing so, we are exhausting both the natural and human resources, and are now driving ourselves into a dead end.

So at present, our behavior could be compared to that of a cancerous organism within the vast surrounding natural system. And that natural ecosystem around us has fine tuned laws that work to preserve life.

Undoubtedly, nature is a nourishing, harmonious system, which is infinitely greater than us – a human species existing within it and completely dependent on it. And quite possibly, the earth can react toward imbalance as a healthy body would react to a disease or a foreign organism within it.

Therefore, if we want to appease nature, and if we want to thrive as a species, we should start by learning how to follow the basic laws of nature, and its homeostatic inter-relations.

We should promote the understanding that as any other living species, we are part of a vast self-regulating natural system, infinitely greater than the human species. We ought to discard the misunderstanding that we are above nature and have the power to manipulate it as we wish.

It is time for us to grow out of the irresponsible perspective that natural laws do not apply to us or that we could override them with technological advancement.

Hurricane Sandy and other natural disasters, when people can neither properly predict nor defend themselves, are timely reminders of our imbalance with nature’s laws. A more predictable and sustainable future is possible if we settle into the interconnected natural system as its partner, adapting to its laws and principles.

The Change Starts Between Us

“The world will need more cooperation in the coming years, as climate change begins to interact with and exacerbate extreme weather events, in order to gain the lead-time needed to prepare for disasters. We will also need the collaboration among governments, the private sector, and academia that often leads to improvements in forecasting.” (Professors Shepherd and Knox)

As part of our connection with nature, we are also connected to each other and dependent on each other. And there is no doubt that disasters like Sandy stress the need for better human connection and cooperation.

It seems that while animals are balanced with nature by instinct, we humans have to exercise our unique capacity for conscious adaptation. We have to do it of our own accord.

How do we align our actions and relations with nature? By consciously adjusting our social values so as to achieve balance in human society and balance with the natural environment.

The natural system is not going to change its homeostatic laws. It has to maintain its integrity and balance.

But we can choose to embrace these laws and assume responsibility for each other and for the environment. The question is whether we will choose to do it as a result of more disasters, or through a pleasant, healing process of inspiring social change.

Image: “Question Mark Phoenix” by Roy Blumenthal from Flickr

October 24, 2012

Education About Interconnectedness Is A Matter Of Human Survival

Unfortunately, too few people have understood the evidence, or have grasped the true scope and significance of the environment. The systemic explanation of the causes of environmental deterioration and disaster is radical in a fundamental sense, i.e. reaching for root causes. People commonly perceive their ‘environment’ as the total of numerous separate interrelationships that have no apparent connections. In fact, these interactive relationships are ultimately, even though remotely, connected.

Although humans consciously interact with the total environment only in relation to particular aspects or elements, survival as a species may depend upon their understanding that those interactions occur within the infinitely greater and more complex systemic reality.

Science is progressively enlarging our awareness of this greater environmental context. Its ubiquitous complexity explains the rationale for the aphorism that ‘you can never do just one thing.'”

Today’s Social Behavior Is At Odds With An Interconnected Approach

The modern view of progress has been distorted psychologically in a way that has obscured its cumulative adverse impacts on humanity.

Human behavior, while driven by forces both internal (cerebral) and external (environmental), is moved by perception.

How people interpret what they perceive is largely determined by their own experience within their culture, and is a legacy of generations past, transmitting interpretations of reality which may persist as after-images even though the reality has in fact changed.

The man-nature dichotomy, the conquest of nature ideology, material expansion, and perpetual growth have long been dominant themes of modernity. They continue to be a mantra of social behavior, albeit increasingly at odds with science-based holistic systemic perceptions of reality.”

Few People Understand Interconnectedness

Moreover the ‘system’ is synergistic in that changes affecting one aspect of the system may cause changes in other parts of the system. It is truly impossible to do just one thing. Yet few people appear to understand that the ultimate environment is an interactive system and more, because it exists within a dynamic cosmos without which our living world is inconceivable.

The systems synergistics concept implies an ultimate unity of knowledge, elaborated recently in writings by E.O. Wilson (e.g., Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, 1998).Yet our published knowledge of the world remains largely specialized and segregated. This may be unavoidable if research is to advance detailed knowledge.

But there is also need to appreciate the connective, integrative, interactive aspects of holistic knowledge which we seem poorly equipped to comprehend, but ignore at our peril.

These possible root causes may be examined separately, but in the human persona they integrate to form a coherent outlook on life. The vision may be erroneous yet satisfying to a human urge for coherence and consistence with a personal view of self interest.

The Human Mind Hasn’t The Skill Or Experience To Yet Understand Interconnectedness

The most basic and important questions regarding human behavior have yet to be answered empirically by the sciences of the brain and nervous system, complemented by sociobiology. Our assumptions today are largely based upon inference. Yet inference, drawing on human history and observed behavior, may lead to pertinent questions and hopefully to reliable hypotheses toward averting hazards to the future. Returning to our question: Have the evolved capabilities of the human mind and culture failed thus far to sufficiently equip humanity to comprehend and evaluate the consequences – good or bad – of its accelerating far-reaching impact upon its environment and thereby upon itself? Jay W. Forrester, systems scientist at MIT, thought so, and in a 1971 article published in Technology Review he wrote:

‘It is my basic theme that the human mind is not adapted to interpreting how social systems behave. Our social systems belong to the class called multi-loop nonlinear feedback systems. In the long history of evolution it has not been necessary for man to understand these systems until very recent historical times. Evolutionary processes have not given us the mental skill needed to properly interpret the dynamic behavior of the systems of which we have now become a part.’”

The Success Of Our Future Depends On Education About Interconnectedness

Any successful society must be an educational institution. However great its commitment to individual freedom and diversity, it needs a code of civic virtue and a general devotion to the common enterprises without which it cannot flourish or survive.

Will a critical mass of society accept the leadership required to move humanity toward a sustainable and sanative future? The state of the world today may justify hope, but does not encourage optimism. Hope for a preferable future will be of little avail unless joined to action.

The resources needed to sustain mankind’s tenancy on Earth are present and available. How they will be used will determine the future insofar as that future may be shaped by human minds and hands.

All excerpts in this post are quoted from Dr. Lynton Keith Caldwell’s “Is Humanity Destined to Self-Destruct?.” Dr. Caldwell was a political scientist and principal architect of the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act.

Image: “Multiple Gaseous Interconnected Gelatinous Enclosures Spawned During Overly Aggressive Agitation,” by Jeff Baxter on Flickr.

October 6, 2012October 6, 2012

Want To Re-Wind The Aging Clock? Change Your Environment!

The Future Of Anti-Aging Therapies

Dr. Thomas Rando, principle investigator for the Rando Laboratory at Stanford University’s School of Medicine is paving the path to the fountain of youth. Research emerging from his lab changed the cutting-edge focus of anti-aging strategies from how to reverse aging to how to reset the aging clock. Dr. Rando’s team demonstrates that by changing the environment of aging cells that scientists can push a “reset button” effectively restoring the characteristics of youth. As a result, organs and tissues comprised of these cells become “young” again even though they are chronologically “elderly.”

A Happy Epigenome Acts Young And Healthy

Dr. Rando explains in the January 2012 issue of Cell that the reset button is pushed by manipulating epigenetic factors affecting the aging cellular environment. Every cell in the human body contains 100% of the genetic material necessary to build an entire person. Regulation of which genes get expressed (turned on) is governed by cellular material known as the epigenome. The epigenome is affected by environmental factors including diet and stress. Positive environmental factors ensure a nurturing epigenome whereas negative factors imprint the epigenome destructively. Hallmarks of an “unhappy” epigenome include aging and disease.

The Miracle of Conception

By manipulating the epigenome, scientists are able to reset the aging clock on cells in a process duplicating the conditions of human conception. When the genetic material of a man and woman meet during fertilization, the resulting genetic material (zygote) is reset to ground zero even though the contributing material (mom and dad) is decades old. In a process scientists don’t yet understand, the union of the male and female genetic material starts aging all over again.

In laboratory experiments, scientists reset the aging clock on muscle, skin and bone cells of aged mice. The result is that elderly mice sport the skin, muscle and bone tissue of the equivalent of teenage mice. What are the practical implications?

Your Environment Is Your Key To Reset Your Aging Clock

Although therapies for humans remain on the drawing board, the findings highlight the importance of reducing stress. Researchers proved stress experienced by pregnant women can impact epigenetic factors both in children and grandchildren resulting in disease and shortened life-span. Other studies show that a mother’s emotional state during pregnancy turns on genes that code for depression in their children. Does anyone need reminding that stress is a leading cause of heart attack? Diligent attention paid to creating harmonious work and home environments may take years off your appearance as well as ensure you live longer.

October 5, 2012October 5, 2012

What Is Systems Thinking? – Peter Senge Explains Systems Thinking Approach And Principles

http://youtu.be/HOPfVVMCwYg

What Is Systems Thinking?

Whenever I’m trying to help people understand what this word ‘system’ means, I usually start by asking: ‘Are you a part of a family?’ Everybody is a part of a family. ‘Have you ever seen in a family, people producing consequences in the family, how people act, how people feel, that aren’t what anybody intends?’ Yes. ‘How does that happen?’ Well… then people tell their stories and think about it. But that then grounds people in not the jargon of ‘system’ or ‘systems thinking’ but the reality – that we live in webs of interdependence.”

What Is The Fundamental Rationale Of Systems Thinking?

[The fundamental rationale of systems thinking] is to understand how it is that the problems that we all deal with, which are the most vexing, difficult and intransigent, come about, and to give us some perspective on those problems [in order to] give us some leverage and insight as to what we might do differently.”

3 Characteristics Of A Systems Thinking Approach

A very deep and persistent commitment to ‘real learning.’

I have to be prepared to be wrong. If it was pretty obvious what we ought to be doing, then we’d be already doing it. So I’m part of the problem, my own way of seeing things, my own sense of where there’s leverage, is probably part of the problem. This is the domain we’ve always called ‘mental models.’ If I’m not prepared to challenge my own mental models, then the likelihood of finding non-obvious areas of leverage are very low.

The need to triangulate. You need to get different people, from different points of view, who are seeing different parts of the system to come together and collectively start to see something that individually none of them see.”

A Fundamental Principle Of Systems Thinking: Smart Individuals Are No Longer Needed, Collective Intelligence Is

We all have probably spent too much time thinking about ‘smart individuals.’ That’s one of the problems with schools. They are very individualistic, very much about ‘the smart kids and the dumb kids.’ That’s not the kind of smartness we need.

The smartness we need is collective. We need cities that work differently. We need industrial sectors that work differently. We need value change and supply change that are managed from the beginning until the end to purely produce social, ecological and economic well-being. That is the concept of intelligence we need, and it will never be achieved by a handful of smart individuals.

It’s not about ‘the smartest guys in the room.’ It’s about what we can do collectively. So the intelligence that matters is collective intelligence, and that’s the concept of ‘smart’ that I think will really tell the tale.”

All quotes in this post are by Peter Senge, scientist and director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management, taken from the video “Navigating Webs of Interdependence.”

September 27, 2012September 27, 2012

Scientist David Suzuki Says Exponential Economic Growth Is Suicidal

Facts Of Life

You know there are a lot of things we can fix in this world; we can do something about…”

David Suzuki is a scientist, environmentalist, broadcaster, and co-creator of the David Suzuki Foundation.

But some things are facts of life… those are things we have to accept and work ourselves around.”

Exponential Growth

One of these facts, Suzuki stresses, is exponential growth:

If something is growing at 1% a year it’ll double in 70 years. 2% a year it’ll double in 35 years; 3% a year in 24 years… anything growing exponentially will double in a predictable length of time. Now I’m going to show you why all this stuff about… ‘We got to keep the economy growing’… is ultimately suicidal.”

Click Here To Watch The Video [3 min. 26 sec.] Of Suzuki Explaining Exponential Growth

A System Analogous To The Planet

1 test tube full of food = the planet.
Bacteria who eat the food= humans.

The Experiment:

1 bacterial cell is introduced into a completely full test tube.
According to exponential growth it will divide every minute.

So at times zero there is 1 cell (bacteria). 1 minute there are 2 (cells). 2 minutes there are 4. 3 minutes there are 8. 4 minutes 16.”

60 Minute Growth Cycle

At 60 minutes the test tube is completely packed with bacteria and there’s no food left. So we have a 60 minutes growth cycle. When is the test tube only half full?”

59 minutes: 50% full.

Even though it’s been chugging along for 59 minutes it’s only half full but one minute later it’ll be completely filled. So that means that…”

58 minutes: 25% full.
57 minutes: 12.5% full.
55 minutes: 3% full.

Living In The 59th Minute

Our home is the biosphere. It’s fixed and finite. It can’t grow. And we’ve got to learn to live within that finite world. Every scientist I have talked to agrees with me: We’ve already passed the 59th minute.”

All quotes courtesy of the test tube video with David Suzuki.

September 23, 2012September 28, 2012

Social Networks And The Need To Recognize Human Connection

The great project of the twenty first century – understanding how the whole of humanity comes to be greater than the sum of its parts – is just beginning. Like an awakening child, the human super organism is becoming self-aware, and this will surely help us to achieve our goals. But the greatest gift of this awareness will be the sheer joy of self discovery and the realization that to truly know ourselves we must first understand how and why we are all connected.”

In their widely acclaimed book, Connected: The Amazing Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, Nicholas Christakis MD, PhD & James Fowler, PhD examine human connection through social networks. The book reveals some startling insights about human interrelation. Understanding the degree of human connectivity is of primary importance if we are going to change our world.

Working Together Generates A Higher Form Of Life

Working together, cells, generate a higher form of life that is entirely different from the internal workings of a single cell. For example, our digestion is not a function of any one cell or even one type of cells. Likewise, our thoughts are not located in a given neuron; they arise from the pattern of connections between neurons. Whether cells, ants, or humans, new properties of a group can emerge from the interactions of individuals. And co-operative interactions are hallmarks of most most major evolutionary leaps that have occurred since the origin of life – consider the agglomeration of single cell organisms into multi-cellular organisms, and the assembly of individuals into super organisms.”

Social Networks Reflect Our Inter-Connectivity

The networks we create have lives of their own. They grow, change, reproduce, survive and die. Things flow and move within them. A social network is a kind of human super organism, with an autonomy and a physiology – a structure and a function – of its own. From what no person could do alone. Our local contributions to the human social network have global consequences that touch the lives of thousands every day and help us to achieve much more than the building of towers or the destruction of the walls. A colony of ants is the prototypic super organism, with properties not apparent in the ants themselves, properties that arise from the interactions and cooperation of the ants. By joining together, ants create something that transcends the individual: complex ant hills spring up like miniature towers of Babylon, tempting wanton children to action. The single ant that find its way to a sugar bowl both of achievements are made possible by the co-ordinated efforts and communication of many individuals. Yet, in a way, these solitary individuals – ant and astronaut, both parts of a super organism – are no different from the tentacle of an octopus sent out to probe a hidden crevice. In fact, cells within multi-celluar organisms can be understood in much the same way.

Like a world wide nervous system, our networks allow us to send and receive messages to nearly every other person on the planet. As we become more hyper connected, information circulates more efficiently, we interact more easily, and we manage more and different kinds of social connections everyday. All of these changes make us, Homo dictyous (Network Man), even more like a super organism that acts with a common purpose. The ability of networks to create and sustain our collective goals continues to strengthen. And everything that now spreads from person to person will soon spread further and faster, prompting new features to emerge as the scale of interactions increases.”

The Necessity To Understand Human Connection

Individualism and holism shed light on the human condition, but they miss something essential. In contrast to these two traditions, they miss something essential. In contrast to these two conditions, the science of social networks offers an entirely new way of understanding human society because it is about individuals and groups and, indeed, about how the former become the latter. Interconnections between people give rise to phenomena that are not present in individuals or reducible to their solitary desires and actions. Indeed, culture itself is one such phenomenon. When we lose our connections, we lose everything.

Scientists are also increasingly seeing events like earthquakes, forest fires, species extinctions, climate change, heartbeats, revolutions and market crashes as bursts of activity in a larger system, intelligible only when studied in the context of many examples of the same phenomenon. They are turning their attention to how and why the parts fit together and to the rules that govern interconnection and coherence. Understanding the structure and function of social networks and understanding the phenomenon of emergence (that is the origin of collective properties of the whole not found in the parts) are thus elements of this larger scientific movement.

The great project of the twenty first century-understanding how the whole of humanity comes to be greater than the sum of its part-is just beginning. Like an awakening child, the human super organism is becoming self-aware, and this will surely help us to achieve our goals. But the greatest gift of this awareness will be the sheer joy of self discovery and the realization that to truly know ourselves we must first understand how and why we are all connected.”

Image: Team Spirit, December 2006 by JF Schmitz

September 22, 2012September 19, 2012

The World We’ve Made: Every 5 Seconds A Child Dies From Malnutrition And Hunger

Man can and must prevent the tragedy of famine in the future instead of merely trying with pious regret to salvage the human wreckage of the famine, as he has so often done in the past.”

– Norman Borlaug, agronomist, humanitarian, and Nobel laureate.

In a previous post, Agriculture In The 21st Century, the amount of food produced in the world that is wasted (1/3 of food produced) was brought up. In that post, a number of experts were quoted, stating that malnutrition and hunger could be ended if unused food were properly distributed.

Malnutrition and Hunger

The following statistics from the World Food Programme show the severity of the lack of food distribution in the world, chiefly highlighting its affect on the children of the world:

Every five seconds a child dies because of hunger.

854 million people worldwide do not have enough to eat, more than the combined populations of the United States, Canada and the European Union.

Hunger is the world’s no.1 health risk. It kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined.

One in seven people in the world will go to bed hungry tonight.

Asia and the Pacific region is home to over half the world’s population and nearly two thirds of the world’s hungry people.

65 percent of the world’s hungry live in only seven countries: India, China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Ethiopia.

Undernutrition contributes to five million deaths of children under five each year in developing countries.

One out of four children – roughly 146 million – in developing countries is underweight.

More than 70 percent of the world’s underweight children (aged five or less) live in just 10 countries, with more than 50 per cent located in South Asia alone.

10.9 million children under five die in developing countries each year. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60 percent of the deaths.

Iron deficiency is the most prevalent form of malnutrition worldwide, affecting an estimated 2 billion people. Eradicating iron deficiency can improve national productivity levels by as much as 20 percent.

Iodine deficiency is the greatest single cause of mental retardation and brain damage, affecting 1.9 billion people worldwide. It can easily be prevented by adding iodine to salt.”

The Need For Empathy

In famine, a focus on women and children highlights biology: here is a mother who cannot feed her child, a breakdown in the natural order of life. This focus obscures who and what is to blame for the famine, politically and economically, and can lead to the belief that a biological response, more food, will solve the problem.”

– Sherman Apt Russell, Nature and science writer

The real evil with which we have to contend is not the physical evil of the Famine, but the moral evil of the selfish, perverse and turbulent character of the people.”

– Charles Trevelyan, British civil servant and colonial administrator

What Do You Think?

In the post before this one, Redefining Prosperity, the issue of prosperity was raised in relation to economics and growth. The same question can easily be posed here as well:

What is the responsibility of those who live in the world in relation to malnutrition and famine?”

What do you think? Write your answer in the comment section below…

Image: Zoriah_kenya_famine_kakuma_refugee_camp_irc_international_rescue_committee_aid_hunger_starvation_shortage_20090128_9672 by Zoriah.

September 21, 2012September 19, 2012

20 Years Ago The World’s Leading Scientists Issued A Still Unheeded Warning: We Must Change

We the undersigned, senior members of the world’s scientific community, hereby warn all humanity of what lies ahead. A great change in our stewardship of the earth and the life on it, is required, if vast human misery is to be avoided and our global home on this planet is not to be irretrievably mutilated.”

– from the World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity.

In November of 1992, around 1,700 of the world leading scientists gathered to issue a warning to humanity. It was signed by the majority of the Nobel laureates in the sciences. It’s language was strong, urgent, and today it still holds startling relevance for humanity and the planet on which we live.

Here is what 1,700 scientists, with as if one voice, issued their urgent warning on:

The Environmental Crisis

Our massive tampering with the world’s interdependent web of life — coupled with the environmental damage inflicted by deforestation, species loss, and climate change — could trigger widespread adverse effects, including unpredictable collapses of critical biological systems whose interactions and dynamics we only imperfectly understand.

Uncertainty over the extent of these effects cannot excuse complacency or delay in facing the threat.”

The Population Crisis

The earth is finite. Its ability to absorb wastes and destructive effluent is finite. Its ability to provide food and energy is finite. Its ability to provide for growing numbers of people is finite. And we are fast approaching many of the earth’s limits. Current economic practices which damage the environment, in both developed and underdeveloped nations, cannot be continued without the risk that vital global systems will be damaged beyond repair.”

Pressures resulting from unrestrained population growth put demands on the natural world that can overwhelm any efforts to achieve a sustainable future. If we are to halt the destruction of our environment, we must accept limits to that growth. A World Bank estimate indicates that world population will not stabilize at less than 12.4 billion, while the United Nations concludes that the eventual total could reach 14 billion, a near tripling of today’s 5.4 billion. But, even at this moment, one person in five lives in absolute poverty without enough to eat, and one in ten suffers serious malnutrition.

No more than one or a few decades remain before the chance to avert the threats we now confront will be lost and the prospects for humanity immeasurably diminished.”

What Must Be Done

Five inextricably linked areas must be addressed simultaneously:

1. We must bring environmentally damaging activities under control to restore and protect the integrity of the earth’s systems we depend on… Priority must be given to the development of energy sources matched to third world needs… We must halt deforestation, injury to and loss of agricultural land, and the loss of terrestrial and marine plant and animal species.

2. We must manage resources crucial to human welfare more effectively. We must give high priority to efficient use of energy, water, and other materials, including expansion of conservation and recycling.

3. We must stabilize population. This will be possible only if all nations recognize that it requires improved social and economic conditions, and the adoption of effective, voluntary family planning.

4. We must reduce and eventually eliminate poverty.

5. We must ensure sexual equality, and guarantee women control over their own reproductive decisions.”

A New Attitude Is Required

A new ethic is required — a new attitude towards discharging our responsibility for caring for ourselves and for the earth. We must recognize the earth’s limited capacity to provide for us. We must recognize its fragility. We must no longer allow it to be ravaged. This ethic must motivate a great movement, convince reluctant leaders and reluctant governments and reluctant peoples themselves to effect the needed changes.”

What Do You Think?

Would the above-mentioned actions (in the “What Must Be Done?” section), and changes of attitude (in the “A New Attitude Is Required”) be enough to bring about a better world?
If not, what is lacking?

Image: Tropical Cyclone Paul by NASA Goddard Photo and Video

September 21, 2012September 19, 2012

The Missing Puzzle Piece: Cooperation, The Third Integral Aspect Of Evolution

Scientists from a wide range of disciplines have attempted for more than a century to explain how cooperation, altruism, and self-sacrifice arose in our dog-eat-dog world. Darwin himself was troubled by selfless behavior. Yet in his great works, the problem of cooperation was a sideshow, a detail that had to be explained away. That attitude prevails among many biologists even today.”

The above and subsequent quotes on cooperation in evolution and human society come from Martin Nowak’s and Roger Highfield’s book, Super Cooperators: Altruism, Evolution, and Why We Need Each Other to Succeed.

Does Cooperation Hurt Survival Of The Fittest?

Why weaken your own fitness to increase the fitness of a competitor? Why bother to look after anyone besides number one? Cooperation goes against the grain of self-interest. Cooperation is irrational. From the perspective of Darwin’s formulation for the struggle for existence, it makes no sense to aid a potential rival, yet there is evidence that this occurs among even the lowliest creatures.

… This looks like a fatal anomaly in the great scheme of life. Natural selection should lead animals to behave in ways that increase their own chances of survival and reproduction, not improve the fortunes of others. In the never-ending scrabble for food, territory, and mates in evolution, why would one individual ever bother to go out of its way to help another?”

To Compete Or Cooperate

We are all cells in the same body of humanity.”

—Peace Pigram (Mildred Lisette Norman)

In the game of life we are all driven by the struggle to succeed. We all want to be winners. There is the honest way to achieve this objective. Run faster than the pack. Jump higher. See farther. Think harder. Do better. But, as ever, there is the dark side, the calculating logic of self-interest that dictates that one should never help a competitor. In fact, why not go further and make life harder for your rivals? Why not cheat and deceive them too?

… Humans are the selfish apes. We’re the creatures who shun the needs of others. We’re egocentrics, mercenaries, and narcissists. We look after number one. We are motivated by self-interest alone, down to every last bone in our bodies. Even our genes are said to be selfish. Yet competition does not tell the whole story of biology. Something profound is missing.”

The Third Integral Element Of Evolution

Previously, there were only two basic principles of evolution—mutation and selection—where the former generates genetic diversity and the latter picks the individuals that are best suited to a given environment. For us to understand the creative aspects of evolution, we must now accept that cooperation is the third principle. For selection you need mutation and, in the same way, for cooperation you need both selection and mutation. From cooperation can emerge the constructive side of evolution, from genes to organisms to language and complex social behaviors. Cooperation is the master architect of evolution.”

Implications For Humanity

The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.”

—Bertrand Russell

Human society fizzes with cooperation. Even the simplest things that we do involve more cooperation than you might think. Consider, for example, stopping at a coffee shop one morning to have a cappuccino and croissant for breakfast. To enjoy that simple pleasure could draw on the labors of a small army of people from at least half a dozen countries.”

“Our breathtaking ability to cooperate is one of the main reasons we have managed to survive in every eco system on Earth, from scorched sun-baked deserts to the frozen wastes of Antarctica to the dark, crushing ocean depths. Our remarkable ability to join forces has enabled us to take the first steps in a grand venture to leave the confines of our atmosphere and voyage toward the moon and the stars beyond.”

Cooperation—not competition—underpins innovation. To spur creativity, and to encourage people to come up with original ideas, you need to use the lure of the carrot, not fear of the stick. Cooperation is the architect of creativity throughout evolution, from cells to multicellular creatures to anthills to villages to cities. Without cooperation there can be neither construction nor complexity in evolution.”

Here is Roger Highfield describing cooperation in evolution [12 minutes 59 seconds]:

… cooperation is the third pillar of evolution. And without cooperation, there is nothing constructive really going on in biology… we’re not only talking about cooperation with each other in this generation. If you look at the state of the planet we have to think carefully about cooperating with future generations too.”

Current Problems/Crises Lack Cooperation

Many problems that challenge us today can be traced back to a profound tension between what is good and desirable for an individual. That conflict can be found in global problems such as climate change, pollution, resource depletion, poverty, hunger, and overpopulation. The biggest issues of all—saving the planet and maximizing the collective lifetime of the species Homo sapiens—cannot be solved by technology alone.

They require novel ways for us to work in harmony. If we are to continue to thrive, we have but one option. We now have to manage the planet as a whole. If we are to win the struggle for existence, and avoid a precipitous fall, there’s no choice but to harness this extraordinary creative force. We now have to refine and to extend our ability to cooperate. We must become familiar with the science of cooperation. Now, more than ever, the world needs SuperCooperators.”

What Do You Think?

How has the absence of cooperation being taught as a key integral aspect of evolution, affected your view of the world?

How would your viewpoint change if you were taught: Cooperation is needed for evolution to continue. It is needed for the development of more complex and harmonious human societies. It is essential for solving problems/crises today?